Student artists find themselves in a difficult socio-academic position, having to meet strict academic standards while fulfilling the demanding, performance-oriented requirements of their creative work. Grounded in Dorothea Orem’s Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory, this study explored the multidimensional self-care behaviors of university-level student artists in Metro Manila, Philippines. Using a cross-sectional quantitative survey design, data were collected from a specialized sample of student artists who leaned heavily toward the performing arts (N = 68) via the 33-item Mindful Self-Care Scale (MSCS). Descriptive rankings revealed significant unevenness in self-care allocation, with participants highly prioritizing Supportive Relationships (M = 4.06, SD = .91) while systematically neglecting Physical Care (M = 2.94, SD = .77). This lopsided profile reflects a reliance on indigenous communal buffer systems (such as kapwa and pagdamay) to insulate against acute academic stressors while leaving somatic health compromised. Independent-samples t-tests indicated that demographic variations were largely homogeneous across gender, membership role, and specific group membership (p > .05), but yielded a significant isolated main effect for academic year level on Supportive Relationships, t(60.0) = 2.53, p = .014, Cohen’s d = .61. Specifically, lower class (M = 4.33, SD = .69) reported significantly higher relational care investment than their upper-class counterparts (M = 3.80, SD = 1.02), capturing a progressive social withdrawal as terminal production requirements and career precarity intensify in the senior years. These findings highlight pervasive cultural scripts of physical overextension within creative student populations. They underscore the urgent institutional necessity for tailored, structurally sound campus wellness programs engineered to protect the self-care agency of aspiring artists. Specifically, institutions should embed mandatory somatic recovery blocks and peer-led physical wellness check-ins directly into high-stakes upper-class rehearsal and production schedules.

Keywords: student artists, self-care behaviors, Orem’s self-care deficit nursing theory, Mindful Self-Care Scale, higher education, Philippines.